Rob Leota

Rob Leota was named captain of the Melbourne Rebels for the 2023 season, the first player they had developed themselves to be given the job. He ruptured an Achilles tendon and did not play a single match that year. The following season the club collapsed financially and was thrown out of Super Rugby.

He is a blindside flanker and No. 8 at Bayonne, 1.90m and 110kg, and of Samoan heritage.

He grew up in Preston, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, and started playing at six, following his cousins. His mother made him stop for several years because she thought the game too dangerous. He played football and Australian rules at Thornbury High School before going back to rugby at about twelve, with the school side and the Northern Panthers. He was in Victoria state teams from under-14 and in the Rebels academy soon after.

He signed his first professional contract at eighteen, for the 2016 season, and was extended before he had played a match. Then came the injuries: an ankle problem limited him to one appearance that year, a serious knee injury cost him a full twelve months, and a shoulder wiped out 2018. He did not play Super Rugby again until 2019, three years after his debut.

2021 was the season that changed things. Castres wanted him as a replacement for Anthony Jelonch and he initially agreed, then turned it down and re-signed with the Rebels for two more years to keep his Wallabies chances alive.

It worked. Dave Rennie capped him against South Africa on the Gold Coast on 12 September 2021, on in the 74th minute of a 28-26 win over the world champions. He started against Argentina a fortnight later and scored twice in four matches on that autumn tour. He has 21 caps.

The Waratahs took him for 2025 after the Rebels folded. In April that year he signed a two-year deal with Bayonne.

A heavy, physical back-rower whose career has been defined by what his body has taken away rather than what he cannot do.